One driver killed as heavy rains flood streets in San Antonio

By Jim Forsyth/Reuters

Sunday, May 26, 2013

SAN ANTONIO — A woman died when her car was washed off a bridge on Saturday as drenching rains in Texas spawned flood waters so powerful they swept a city bus off the street, San Antonio officials said.

Several dozen people had to be evacuated after water rose rapidly through a neighborhood near the Mission Espada, one of the 18th Century Spanish colonial missions that dot the city’s south side along the San Antonio River.

“The bus was driving down the street when water got under its tires,” said Priscilla Ingle, vice president of the city’s Via Metro Transit. “This forced the bus off the street as the water rose.”

Ingle said Fire Department rescue teams pulled the driver and three passengers to safety. She added that the city bus service had been shut down until the water recedes to safer levels.

Separately, a woman was killed when her car was washed into a creek as she tried to drive across a bridge, police said.

“We ask San Antonians to please stay off the roads and stay at home,” Mayor Julian Castro said.

Fire Department spokesman Christian Bove said the roof of an apartment complex had collapsed due to the accumulated rainfall and that firefighters had been called to several fires believed to have been caused by lightning.

At one point in mid-morning, several dozen major thoroughfares in the city were closed by flood waters, although police said in a statement that many streets are starting to be reopened. Bove said his department was receiving around 30 calls an hour for motorists stranded in rapidly rising water.

Parts of San Antonio received nine inches of rain in three to four hours, according to the National Weather Service. The rain comes as central Texas is preparing to move into summer with lake and aquifer levels substantially below normal.